'Real' literally means 'pertaining to things' — coined by medieval philosophers from Latin 'res' (thing).
Actually existing as a thing; not imagined, supposed, or pretended; genuine and authentic.
From Late Latin 'reālis' (actual, relating to things), from Latin 'rēs' (thing, matter, affair, fact), from PIE *reh₁ís (wealth, goods, thing). The word was coined by medieval scholastic philosophers to distinguish questions about the nature of things ('reālis') from questions about words ('nōminālis'). It entered English through Anglo-French
The word 'republic' comes from Latin 'rēs pūblica,' literally 'the public thing' or 'public affair' — making a republic, etymologically, a system in which governance is everyone's real business, not a monarch's private possession.